Kilby nomination puts her in Olympic company

Kilby nomination puts her in Olympic company

Earning international honours in one sport is achievement enough but managing caps in two different sports in a single season is worthy of award nomination, and so it was, that Club Captain Jo Kilby found herself rubbing shoulders with the finest of Olympic champions at the 2017 Birmingham Post and Mail Sports Awards on Tuesday, after being nominated and then shortlisted for the venerable Amateur Sportswoman of the Year award.

Recognition was duly earned courtesy of a bumper year which not only saw Kilby steer her Lions to an unprecedented fourth British club title, but which also saw her captain Great Britain’s Womens American Football team to a win against Spain, before an international call-up for Scotland Rugby completed the historic year…heading to Hungary, Kilby represented the national Sevens team in the final leg of the Rugby Europe Sevens Women’s Trophy in Esztergom, even scoring (a conversion!) on her debut.

Losing out to deserved – but arguably not entirely amateur! – joint-winners, Lily Owsley and Laura Unsworth from the 2016 Rio Olympic Gold Medal winning Great Britain Women’s Hockey Team, Kilby was magnanimous in defeat: “…as clichéd as it sounds just to be nominated, and alongside such notable Olympic company, was pretty special, so I was chuffed before I even got to the ceremony, and from there it was just a great evening out, celebrating the best of sport in Birmingham.”

The awards evening, which took place at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, were sponsored by Sport Birmingham.